Review Trading: How to Help Yourself by Helping Other Authors

If you consider your novels to be your children, then a good book review is their college fund.  Let’s face it, in today’s market of self publishing and ebooks, authors have to be their own marketing tools.  Between blogs, twitter, linked in, Goodreads, Shelfari, and many other social networking sights, building a following as an independent author is a full time job.  We write blogs, post updates on twitter, search for authors / reviewers / editors all on our own.  I learned this early on when I started to write my novel and search out other independent authors.  The one thing I kept hearing from successful self-published authors is that you have to build your own brand and you have to start building it FAR in advance of actually releasing your novel.  Then, once you have everything set up AND keep it updated on a regular basis, the next best tool to build a following is to receive good reviews and to receive those reviews from other authors.

Now, I know that many of us have so much going on between writing, blogging, networking and of course everything else that goes on in our lives that doesn’t involve being an author that sometimes its hard to find the time to read, let alone review, a book.  To be successful and build our brand though, it is vital that indie authors support each other with reviews.  A good review, especially from another author that a reader can go and search out, can make the difference between someone buying or passing on a new series.

Make the reviews honest, but fair.  Try to focus more on the positives rather than the negatives, but certainly point out any problems you find in grammer/editting/pacing to the author in private.  Yes, this means that you might hurt some feelings, but as indie authors we have to accept that we have plenty of room to grow as we write more and more.  Most importantly, if an author reviews your story then you should try your hardest to return the favor.  Of course it’s possible that you don’t usually read that authors particular genre, but give it a try anyway as it might surprise you.  And what could be better then a positive review by someone that admits to not being a fan of the type of novel?

So in closing, help out your fellow authors by reading AND reviewing their novels, give your stories away in exchange for reviews, and most importantly keep your reviews positive or if that’s impossible, let the author know what was wrong and how it could be fixed.  Remember, we may be our own best form of advertising, but other authors providing assitance is certainly the next best thing.